What Price Continuity?
by veraklon
Summary: On possibly the happiest day of her life, Chloe is given the choice on the fate of Clark. Shall he be just another superhero or will he become the greatest icon the universe has ever known?
1. Chapter 1

What Price Continuity?

X

Everything below is owned by DC Comics and/or Smallville. My using these copyrighted characters, places, etc. should not be taken as my challenging their right and/or ownership.

For the record, I am a huge Clark/Chloe fan and wish that DC Comics would just start over and include the Chloe Sullivan character into the history and continuity of the DC Universe. Unfortunately, they may never happen, so this story is my thought on how the continuity situation could be explained from the television show to the comic books.

X

CHAPTER ONE

Chloe glanced over her shoulder for the umpteenth time to check her reflection, the words to describe how she felt still lost. The mirror, a last minute present from Lex, had to have some type of special property to it; magic or something. Or maybe it was one of those specially designed mirrors that clothing stores used to make you look better in the changing room than you did once you bought the clothes and tried them on again at home.

It just had to be something. There had to be a logical explanation.

She looked yet again at the mirror. In its gilded frame, even leaning against the wall, she could see herself and the room she was currently occupying. The small room was decorated like any, she guessed. There were three chairs, all uncomfortable to sit in, but that they were being used for various articles of clothing to drape over, rather than for sitting. Tables against the far wall held flowers of all variety, a virtual cornucopia of color and scents.

The table next to the giant mirror held several small vials of expensive perfumes (French, she assumed), each given from Lana. Also scattered about the wooden surface were several items of mass torture: lipsticks and powders and eyeliners from every cosmetic company in the known world. The room was a wreck… much like her own room looked like at home.

Her attention was finally drawn away from the mirror as the only door into the room across from where she stood cracked open, Mrs. Kent's face sliding through into the room, before the door was finally wide open allowing for Clark's mother to enter the room. Chloe felt her own slight smile transform into a grin at the look on Martha Kent's face. It had always been difficult to fight off one of her infectious smiles (a trait she had passed along to her son, Clark), especially when it was aimed directly at you.

"Oh, Chloe. You look so amazing." Martha spoke into the silence of the room. "You are absolutely beautiful. Perfect."

The words were music to Chloe's ears, though she knew the waterworks were about to begin. Compliments were not something she took to well unless it was for her writing skills. Her eyes felt hot and she knew her cheeks were flushed as she started waving her hands in front of her face, trying vainly to keep cool. She laughed at the absurdity of her plight as Martha quickly moved closer, a cloth somehow magically appearing in her hands as she reached out to slowly dab at Chloe's eyes.

"Don't move," the older woman admonished. "You can't afford for any of your makeup to get anywhere, so let me do it."

Chloe tried to pull back a bit, to maybe brush some of the wetness from her skin, but Martha Kent was having none of it. She sternly, but with loving care, slapped at Chloe's hands as she continued to slowly trace the edge of the cloth (maybe a handkerchief?) across her face and under her eyes. It took a moment for Chloe to realize that the other woman was humming quietly as she worked. It was enough to help Chloe to stop from crying and possibly ruining her makeup any further.

Finally, Mrs. Kent leaned back and surveyed the salvage operation. "Well," she smiled at Chloe, helping to keep the smile on the young blonde-haired woman's face. "I think we may have to let Lana back in here to help… but overall, not too much damage."

"Great. Thank you, Mrs. Kent." Chloe replied. There was so much more that she could say, should say, but the appreciation was all that would come out of her mouth. "Martha smiled further and slowly turned Chloe around so that they were each now looking at their reflections in the mirror.

Martha Kent's red hair, though there were a few wisps of gray starting to show, was elegantly pulled back, allowing for her natural beauty to work its own kind of magic. Her jewelry was simple, more to the fact of her spending her life as a farmer's wife, than for any lack of caring. The dress was a beautiful muted gray that cut simply about the woman. Overall, she could have been going out for a night out with Mr. Kent, but for the large corsage pinned at her shoulder.

Martha Clark Kent was stunning. In comparison to the picture that the mirror showed back, she paled in comparison to the young woman standing slightly in front of her. Once again, Chloe had to remind herself that the woman she was seeing in the reflection was really her.

Maybe it was best to start with her hair. Normally cut somewhat short and possibly colored in different ways to surprise her father, it had been allowed to grow out slightly, to the point that it brushed along the edge of her shoulders. It was a true blonde now, or as true as a single choice of coloring at the Metropolis Salon her father had sent her could make it. Either way, with her blue eyes and light complexion, she was as close to mainstream as she had ever been.

It was the dress, though, that kept bringing Chloe up short. Well. Gown, really. The warm candle ivory color of the dress, elegantly cut and draping down to the floor, just seemed so perfectly shaped and styled for her. The was slight amount of embroidery along the neckline, which seemed indecently cut low, but as it was her day, she had been told that it could be to any extreme she wanted. So, the dress was as she had chosen.

There had been the consideration of the dress that had belonged to her mother, but deciding that she did not want to chance any ill fortune (a long discussion with her father she would much rather forget), she elected to look elsewhere. And then there had been the offer from Martha, which had been sweet, but again to the negative. Chloe had wanted something all her own, and that is what she had gotten. Even her shoes matched.

"I'm getting married today." She whispered softly.

Martha leaned over and kissed Chloe on the cheek. "Yes, you are." She squeezed Chloe's shoulders, the best that could be offered without fear of wrinkling the dress. "And I better get Lana and Lois in here before I cause another mess."

Chloe laughed as Martha quickly moved towards the door. She turned and gave one last smile to Chloe before putting her hand on the doorknob "I'm so happy for you, Chloe." As she opened the door and stepped through, Chloe was warmed with her quick visit. "I so wish Jonathan was here to see this. The two of you finally getting married. Welcome to the family."

Alone in the room, Chloe pondered those final words: Welcome to the family. After today, she was no longer going to be Chloe Sullivan. That woman was gone. Forever.. Now she was going to be Chloe Kent.

Chloe Kent?

No.

Maybe Chloe Sullivan-Kent. That sounded better.

In less than two hours, childhood and teenage dreams and wishes would become a reality. She would have her father walk her down the isle, where Clark Kent would tell the world that he would honor her above all others, stand with her from now on. And she would promise the same to him.

Her cousin would stand next to her, with Lana and Diana backing her up. A private investigator, an art critic and an Amazonian Princess watching a beginning reporter say "I do."

Not that Clark had it much easier. Lex Luthor was standing as best man. Standing to the side of him was Bruce Wayne and Pete Ross. Two quadrillionaires and a budding politician.

Smiling to herself over the direction of her thoughts, Chloe went back to her reflection to really assess what she'd done to the makeup job Lana had spent most of the morning working on. As she leaned closer to the mirror, trying to better look at how red her eyes might be, she heard the door open. She was too close to the mirror to watch who'd come into the room, but figured that it would be either her maid of honor or one of the other bridesmaids.

"Lana? Lois? Diana?" She began. "Can one of you help me out here?" When there was no immediate response, Chloe stopped fiddling with her makeup and straightened up to get a better view of the room behind her from the mirror's reflection.

"Chloe Sullivan?" a strange figure stood behind her.

Her first instinct was to be angry that someone had let this strange man into her dressing room on her wedding day (her wedding day to Clark Kent, no less), when it struck her as extremely odd that he'd gotten in at all. There was enough otherworldly power and security throughout the building that with a single word, there'd be a race to see who pummeled this guy first.

The entire roster of the Luther-Wayne Justice Foundation was attending this wedding, dubbed by Perry White (her boss and editor at the Daily Planet) as possibly the biggest spectacle this side of Charles and Diana. Of course, everyone had their fingers crossed for a happier ending than that one.

She was safe. Clark was close by. And if he was tied up somewhere, there was always Diana. Or Hal. Bart. Kara. Or so many others, all of whom were downstairs. With that thought, she let her anger abate and watched as the figure moved closer.

"Stop right there." She began. "Yes, I'm Chloe Sullivan. Can I help you?" Chloe cocked her head to the side as she carefully watched the stranger. If he made a move, she was calling for help immediately, damn be to the consequences.

The figure, his features strangely still hidden from view, stopped exactly where he'd been told. In fact, Chloe watched, as the figure almost seemed to lose some tension in his posture, like some great task had been completed. "Finally."

"Finally?" Chloe wasn't sure she liked the idea of this strange man saying that. "What do you mean 'finally'?"

She never got a chance to hear his answer, much less follow through with her earlier attempt at calling someone for help, as the room… maybe the entire planet, to even the whole expanse of the universe, seemed to stop but for the two of them in that single instant.

"We have to talk, Chloe Sullivan." His voice was deep and like ice along her spine. "We have to talk about the saving of billions of lives. Lives that you have somehow allowed to die."

She wanted to scream for Clark then. Something was wrong. Her day of perfection was over, maybe to never be found again. Chloe opened her mouth to call for her love to save her once again, but the words were trapped somewhere. They wouldn't come… and that meant that no one would be coming to help her.

The world seemed to twist inside out… and then everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

At least that sick, twisty feeling was gone from the pit of her stomach.

"You can open your eyes, Miss Sullivan." A voice suddenly called out from the darkness. No. Not _a_ voice, but _the_ voice. It was the voice of the stranger that had interrupted her perfect day, from the day she and Clark were finally going to get married.

Chloe had not even realized her eyes were closed until she started to get a headache from squeezing them so tightly shut. It might have been easier to convince herself to open her eyes if she thought it might all be some type of dream, but she knew it wasn't. In her life, there had been way too much wall of weird for her to truly believe it was all okay.

With quite a bit of trepidation, she forced herself to relax and then slowly opened her eyes.

"There. Much better." The stranger spoke again. The young woman started to open her mouth in retort to the condescending tone coming from her kidnapper, but Chloe forgot what it was that she had been going to say as she took in her immediate surroundings.

They were definitely no longer at the Luthor-Wayne Justice Foundation Center in Metroplois. In fact, Chloe thought with some small amount of amusement, she could honestly say that she didn't think she was in Kansas anymore. _Where are those ruby red slippers when you really need them, huh?_

"What?" The figure asked. Chloe didn't even look back at him as she realized that her last thought had been spoken out loud. Her eyes were still caught up in the view.

She was on a ship of some sort. The cooridor she and her abductor stood in was stark in its simplicity. There were two chairs, both facing outward to the window. The walls all around the room were cold, unyielding steel, each polished to the point of being a close second to the mirror she had only moments ago been looking at.

_Had it really only been moments ago? Was there any real way to tell?_

Not that it really mattered. The room had no discernable door, but as she had no real way of understanding how she was where she was, a door seemed almost too much to ask. But it really, really didn't matter. Not in truth, because any door would be limited by what she saw outside the window.

Chloe stared through the window at the Earth.

She was in space. Outer space. Like, closer to the stars. Away from terra firma. She was out to where only NASA and some billionaires (such as Bruce and Lex and a few others) could afford to fly. Chloe stared out through the window (shouldn't she call it a viewer or something rather than a window?) and wondered at the seriousness of the situation she was in.

"Are you a teleporter?"

"A what?" the figure actually lifted his head enough out of the shadows for her to finally get a better look at him.

"A teleporter," she explained. "is someone with the ability to travel over large distances instantaneously. To fold space and reality to where two points become one for a split second, allowing for the teleporter to exchange his physical being from point A to point B."

She watched as the man she faced lifted his gloved hand to push his hat back and scratch at his head, maybe to contemplate what she had just told him.

"Distances? No. Realities? Yes."

Chloe felt her skin go cold beneath her wedding gown. "Realities? Like there's more than one?"

"Yes. Thousands. Maybe millions." He stopped scratching at his head and started becoming more animated, his hands gesturing this way and that as he continued to talk. "An infinite possibility of realities. What if Clark had never come to Earth? What if he came at a different time? What if he had fallen in love with someone else? Told different people his secret? Or not told others?"

If it had been possible, Chloe would have felt even colder. He knew so much about Clark.

Sure, Clark had been a celebrity for the past few years, ever since that shuttle had almost crashed. Her love had said "be damned" to the consequences and had saved the shuttle from crashing. After that, every news organization in the world had wanted a piece of him. But that's when Lex stepped in and finally cleared himself of all doubt in Chloe's mind.

Initially, Lex had seemed a bit hurt at what some might have considered a betrayal of their friendship. But when he realized that Clark had been there every time Lex had needed him, the two joined forces and took on the world. And that's when Kent and Luthor joined together in truth. It really wasn't all that long after the shuttle incident that others like Clark started coming forward.

Bart Allen (that kid she'd met back in high school!) turned out to be really fast. On foot, he was even faster than Clark. Then came Jonn, the shapeshifter. Captain Jordan came later, the possession of some alien artifact allowing his name to be added to the roster.

The world already knew about the Amazon nation (so cleverly called Paradise Island by a male newscaster) at this point, but few knew of the raw power that these women possessed. Diana was their representative to the outside world, and she took it by storm when she proved to be nearly as powerful as Clark was.

There were so many, and hardly any of them associated with meteor rocks or Smallville. The world was all new and different. But Lex was still a Luthor, and so much seemed to ride on the money helping to bring everyone together. That's when Bruce Wayne entered their lives. Dark and mysterious, he'd shown up with a gleam in his eye and money to rival the Luthors.

While Lex was great at business, Bruce Wayne became the driving force of the conglomerate, soon creating a non-profit security opportunity, the Luthor-Wayne Justice Foundation, based upon the principles of justice and fair-play. Their lives were coming together nicely, and that's when everything started to go towards perfect.

Lana Lang and Clark had dated somewhat seriously during the beginnings of college, but soon they couldn't hold the spark. They were better at the pining and the angst, rather than the honesty and care that a couple needed. Just a crush, not a true love.

During those rough days, Chloe had realized that Clark needed a friend, something that at the time neither Lex (for whatever reason) nor Pete (due to distance) couldn't provide. Clark needed the trust that friends provided for him, much more at that time than a girlfriend or lover could have. He was desperate to not be alone… a fear that Clark once confided in her came from a vision of the future from an old lady just before she died.

With Clark not having to hide his secrets from her, Chloe and Clark grew closer and closer, until the day came that when he saved those astronauts in the space shuttle. In that moment, Clark found that he had found his calling. But more, that he had no reason to fear reprisals or reproachful feelings from her. They literally fell blindly into love.

_Well… it had been obvious to Chloe all along, but Clark sometimes had to be hit over the head. And with what it took to hurt him, that was a lot of hits._

The strange man was still ranting (monologue-ing, according to the movie _The Incredibles_) about the definition of the different universes. Multiverses, he called it, when he seemed to finally catch on that she was only half paying attention to him, her gaze still partly focused on the Earth slowly spinning in the spacecraft's window.

_Hey! That was an interesting thought! _"Are we on a spaceship?" Chloe asked suddenly, not caring that she was being rude to her captor.

"A station, actually. I am curious…"

"And is there anyone on the station?" Chloe tried to smile. "Besides us, I mean."

"Look, Ms. Sullivan…"

Chloe turned and walked away from him, walking over towards the window on the space station. As she drew closer, a sense of vertigo seemed to feel her and she paused. The window was larger than it had first appeared, and that allowed for a lot of nothingness to be viewed. It was definitely a fall she didn't want to experience.

Whipping around, Chloe decided to try a new tactic on her opponent. "In these… multiverses, you talk about. Is there a Clark in all of them?"

He seemed pleased by her question, as the figure slowly walked over to one of the chairs on the other side of the metal corridor and dropped his coat and hat onto its seat. Next, he slowly pulled off the heavy gloves and moved to take his pants off. Chloe started to worry a bit at this point, but the figure turned and revealed a very strange outfit… a costume, really… worn under his other clothing.

He was tall and fairly well built. He might have even been attractive once, but it looked like the weight of way too many years and lost battles had weathered him down to nothing. Chloe had met veterans of the Middle East Wars that carried that look sometimes.

Overall, he was normal, but that he was dressed in a Halloween costume. A leotard. Or tights, maybe. Worse though was that it might have once been purple or some such, but time and wear had let it dull to a pinkish state. But even his fashion victim status could have been ignored, but that his left shoulder (all the way down to his fingers on the right hand) was armored somehow. Like a robot-type armored, not like some SCA reject type of way.

"You really have nothing to fear, Ms. Sullivan." The man straightened, finally giving Chloe a real chance to look him over. "I promise that I will not physically hurt you in any way. I need your help."

"In any physical way?" Chloe inquired. "That's a strange way to put it."

He nodded. "I want only what's best… but I can't be the one to decide that anymore…"

Chloe waited. The idea that if Clark existed in many of these realities, maybe she could find him somehow and together they could figure out how to get her home. That was even if what this crackpot said was true. For all she knew, she was in some warehouse made out to appear like it was in space. _Its not like she'd never been kidnapped before._

"I can't decide how to save everyone anymore. My ideas keep failing, changing everything worse and worse." Chloe thought that this strangely costumed man might actually start crying. _Why was he crying? Now she had a sensitive kidnapper? Where did these guys come from any way? _"Hypertime is in ruins. The Linear Men are gone."

He sat then. Chloe waited, but he did nothing but sit there, apparently lost within his own recriminations. After a few minutes seemed to pass, Chloe became bored with standing there and walked slowly towards him.

"Who are you exactly? And what is going on?"

The man looked up at her approach. With a closer view, Chloe could see that his face was marked with thin scars… burns, almost… and that he was definitely on the edge of tears. She was standing in a space station in another reality still wearing her wedding dress, and _he_ was about to cry?

"Just tell me." She told him softly.

"You deserve that much for what I'm going to ask of you." He attempted to regain his composure. "I'm Matt Ryder. I'm a protector of the time stream and of the various places in Hypertime. In the different realities."

"Okay." What else could she say? "And what's going on?"

He took a deep breath as he evidently stalled for time.

"And?" She pressured.

"And… somehow your reality is overwriting all of the others. Clark Kent never became Superman. And without Superman, the others didn't meet their potential, either." Now talking, she couldn't have stopped him if she had tried. "And Darkseid has the Anti-Life Equation, which is giving him this reality as a base of operations and destroying the rest."

Chloe sat hard into the other chair. Truthfully, she didn't remember moving to the chair, but somehow she had safely landed in its seat. Her gown was most assuredly wrinkled beyond all hope of a quick fix before her wedding to the man she had always loved.

It was almost too much. It was the delusions of a fantasy made real by someone not in their right mind. Had to be that. The names, other than Clark's, had meant nothing to her. And dark side? Did he mean what happened to Clark around red meteor rocks?

It was too much.

It couldn't be real.

But one question had to be asked.

"Superman?"


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Once again, she was looking at herself in a mirror, disbelief plainly written all over her face. _This was simply not happening. Not possible. There had to be another possible explanation. _

_Didn't there?_

Her captor, named Matthew Ryder by his own admission, had refused to elaborate more about this so-called "super man" and had ushered her into another section of the station, giving her a chance to change out of her wedding dress and into some clothes ( so not what she would have chosen herself) that had been provided. She felt like lying down on the floor and sobbing for a year or two, having to take the gown off. _Off alone, that is._

That was supposed to have been what Clark's job was. The wedding. The reception afterwards. And then the honeymoon (which he still had never told her where they were going – the boy could definitely keep a secret). Her perfect day. It was all ruined because some time traveling freak had decided that she was somehow responsible or destined or something in the way of involved with Clark and this whole hyper-whatchama-whoseit getting so screwed up.

_She had asked what he meant by saying that Clark was destined to become a super man. "No," he had corrected her. "Not _a_ super man, but _the_ Superman." _

And with that, what to her had just moments before been a seamless metal wall suddenly shifted, allowing for a doorway. Mr. Ryder had them swept his arm out to indicate that she should move towards the other side, wherever it might lead. She had tried to engage him in further conversation as they both moved out of the corridor, but he merely smiled and asked that she make herself comfortable.

It was a private room. He indicated where a bathroom was, as well as a change of clothing and other simple amenities. Seeing that she was in the room and knew where the basics were, the battle-scarred figure smiled sadly at Chloe and then turned out the way they had both entered. Once he was out of sight, the wall once again became smooth. Chloe had moved quickly to follow (maybe subconsciously she had guessed what might happen), but had been nowhere quick enough.

Surveying the room, Chloe had not been impressed at all. Hell, even Bruce's apartment at the Foundation in Metropolis was decorated better. Everything was stark in appearance. Smooth, silver walls. No window. The aforementioned door leading to the bathroom. There was no telephone, no TV or stereo within sight. It was Motel 6 on a very, very bad day. All that had been left to her was to clean up in the bathroom and change into the gray jumpsuit provided.

Her reflection showed a picture of a victim. Chloe's eyes looked haunted and she knew why. This guy wanted her to give up Clark. According to him, in what she could gleam from his near-zealot reverence when he said "Superman," he wanted this… what? Timeline?... to not have a Clark Kent, but a Superman. Someone to face off against the dark-thingie, whatever it was supposed to be.

Chloe vowed that she was not going to lose Clark. She'd never given up on him, and there was no way after finally being happy that she would just throw it all away.

"Ms. Sullivan?" a voice called from the main room. _Time to get started. _With a forced casualness she didn't come close to feeling, Chloe slowly walked away from the mirror.

Matthew Ryder was standing at the wall, once again marred by a doorway that had not been there just a few minutes prior. He was still dressed in that purple (it still looked pink to her) suit. Chloe intentionally tried not to look at the robotic arm. It was just too weird, even for her.

"More insinuations that I'm responsible for no super man and responsible for the death of whole universes?" She was proud of how calm she sounded. "Or are we gonna just tell me I look fat now and make me cry some more?"

"No, Ms. Sullivan… "

"How about you calling me Chloe? Hm? Today I was supposed to become a Kent, and the Ms. Sullivan thing is too annoying for words. Kay?" He actually smiled what appeared to be a real smile at her words. Maybe there was hope yet.

"Thank you, Chloe." He stepped away from the doorway and gestured for her to exit the room.

"What about my gown?" She was suddenly wary about possibly leaving the wedding dress alone in some vanishing door room on a space station in the middle of… N_evermind. If she got out of this unscathed would be a miracle in and of itself, much less her dress._

"Actually, all will be restored to exactly as it was, depending upon your choices here and now." He started chuckling at his words. "Although, here and now means very little to me and the other travelers of the time stream of the multiverse."

_Oh, no. He was going to start with the headache talk again._ "So," cutting him off before he could get started. "What's this big decision I need to make?"

As they walked along the corridor, Chloe noticed that there were several windows now along the wall, but something about looking out all of the windows seemed… off. There were six windows, each showing the Earth, suddenly much closer than when she had viewed it before.

"That's it!" She suddenly exclaimed, her voice echoing in the empty metal room. She smiled inwardly as Ryder seemed to jump at her interruption of his thoughts.

"What?"

"The Earth. The angles are wrong through the windows." _Well. It actually made more sense than what she had attempted to explain, but she was not sure how to put it._ In each of the six windows, the angle of the Earth was the same, which shouldn't be possible. When you look out several windows at the same thing, each window should show a different part of the whole, but in this case, each showed the same scene… kinda.

"Very good, Ms. Sul… Chloe." He smiled, albeit more sorrowful than with any genuine warmth like before. "The first… window, to use your word, looks into one of the few remaining realities where Superman… Clark to you… and his ideals still hold sway."

Chloe glanced nervously at the first window and then back to Ryder. "And how does this work? Will I get sucked into it? And then what? How do I get out?"

"No, Ms. Sullivan," She decided not to correct him again. "This will act much like a television. You will be able to watch scenes of this world, this reality."

She had to admit that the idea of being able to watch a world seemed like the ultimate offer as a reporter. With such a device, her role at the Daily Planet would become indispensable. Nobel Prize, here she comes. _But at what price?_

Clark her often lamented his abilities to her in private, knowing things that he'd rather never have known. He'd been heartbroken when he overheard his parents quietly talking about the cancer that was spreading through Jonathan Kent's stomach. He'd screamed in agony at literally watching it eat away at his father, the curse of such powers. And there had been nothing that he could do.

Shaking her head to clear away such thoughts, she glanced at the window screen (a viewer?) and waited. The Linear Man watched her. "And what will it show me?"

He smiled. Chloe could see the look in his eyes. He knew he'd succeeded in getting her interested in what he had to say. _She would not lose Clark! Period._ "There are some things that I will want to show you. This is not for pleasure, that I do this, but for the stability and safety of billions of lives. Of worlds and universes. But you will need to see some things, as well. Things that will mean more to you, events that I would never have considered."

"Events?" She asked.

"Yes. It is not just the present, but everything leading up to this point on that Earth, as well as where it is headed. Headed, at least, unless Darksied succeeds in conquering and extinguishing this reality, as well."

_She knew she was going to hate herself._ "That's twice you've mentioned… Dark side? What is that?"

"Not dark side, but Darksied." He politely corrected her. "He is a despot from a world of pain and horror, appropriately enough called Apocalypse. By some explanations, you could call him a god, though not one from any teachings I would subscribe to."

"And he's doing what?" _Definitely hate herself._

"He's destroying all life through something called the Anti-Life Equation." He shuddered. "Its too involved for a quick explanation, other than that its bad. Very, very bad."

"And Clark… as this Superman… he's what? Going to fight off a god of some sort?"

"Essentially? Yes." _Uh-oh. The hate was worse than anything before. Definite self-mutilation here._ "You'll see it in this world. Superman, Clark Kent, is a hero to the universe… to several universes. He becomes the foundation by which all the other superheroes are measured. And it's by his example and leadership that Darkseid was supposed to be stopped."

"Supposed to be?" _She knew that she shouldn't have asked, but it was the obvious progression of the conversation. Besides, she had to know._

"Yes. The Anti-Life Equation was stopped. Should have been stopped. But now, with this reality, Darksied is succeeding. Will succeed." His gaze seemed to bore into her soul. "Unless we… you… find a way to stop it."

"Stop it how?" _Boy, wasn't she just Miss Inquisitive today._

"I don't know. I've tried so many different things. I just can't figure it out. That's why you're here. I'm hoping that you might be able to find what it is I'm missing."

"And I'm supposed to figure all this out by watching a reality TV show in a universe that's not mine?" _Finally, anger. He had finally pissed her off enough that she was getting angry._ "Brilliant plan there, Time Boy."

"No." That caught her off guard. "Not one, but six."

_Oh, she was definitely ready to get back to her wedding._ "And what are the other five going to show me that one cannot?"

He smiled, and now it was sinister. He suddenly reminded her of Lionel Luthor, Lex's father. "The first you know. The second is similar to the first, but with a few alterations. Then we'll see if you have any thoughts on one or two realities you might want to see."

"One or two?" She mentally counted windows. "That maxes out at four. What about the last two?"

At her question, Ryder turned away from her. He was staring at the last two windows farthest away from where they currently stood. She suddenly wished that she had never asked the question… but, if wishes were possible, there was so much more about today that she would wish for first.

Finally, after what was probably only seconds, but seemed like hours, he spoke. "The next to last viewer is the recordings of a branch of Hypertime that already fell to Darkseid's machinations. I can promise that it will not be pretty."

She did everything but cover her mouth to try and prevent what was coming, but she knew she was going to ask the moment he didn't continue. "And the final window?"

Matthew Ryder glanced back to look at her. He truly came across as an old man. An old man that had seen way too much and lost more than anyone should be asked to give.

"And finally, you will see what your future will be like if you decide to do nothing."

"Great." She sighed.

He nodded. Maybe it was in silent acknowledgement of what he was forcing upon her. If this guy was legit, that he actually could alter history simply by the choices and decisions she might make, then the success or failure of… well… everything depended upon her.

She still reserved the hope that he was nuts. Completely bonkers. And that there was a way out of this mess and back to her life. Her life with Clark and everyone else.

"Fine." _Might as well take the initiative._ "How do these window televisions work?"

Ryder walked her over to the first screen (screen actually worked better than window, considering what he was telling her she was about to view. "All that you have to do is tell it what you want to see." At her look, he nodded again. "Seriously. It's that simple. Just tell the viewer that you want to see something and it will show you the present. After that, you can direct it forwards or backwards in time."

_Things were getting bad. She was actually starting to follow the idea of timelines, multiverses and Hypertime._ "But what if something alters the timeline? Where does the viewer go? What does it show me?"

He smiled a genuine smile again. "You're starting to get it. The viewer will follow the primary line that you began with. You can direct it to another reality, but that can cause further difficulty depending upon the logical percentage chances of outcomes."

"Like what has the better chance of happening?"

Right." He answered, definitely warming up to a subject he was familiar with. "The primary timeline follows the outcome with the largest percentage chance of happening. Everything with a lower possibility can be followed later." He smiled. "It can even go so far as to show things with fractions of a chance, but nothing at zero."

A revelation hit. "So, is that why I'm here? Was I the highest percentage possibility for success?"

She felt the smile come to her face as he seemed visibly shocked that she had properly followed the bread crumbs. "Well… yes. We tried so many others. Lois Lane had been the original idea of who might be the highest, but she actually scored extremely low. And Lana Lang was only a little bit higher.

"The entire Justice League," _Justice League?_ "They were all considered and discarded." He glanced at the screens and then back at her. "No one had any real type of chance that had any hope. And then I found you."

"Me?" She hoped that her voice had not squeaked as bad as it sounded to her.

Matthew Ryder nodded. "You. Chloe Sullivan. For whatever reason, you scored higher than anyone else. And it's for that reason, you are here to help fight off the end of everything."

"You don't ask for much, do you?"

Chloe was taken aback a bit when he started laughing out loud. He laughed for several minutes, his laughter echoing throughout the corridor, before he finally seemed to pull himself together. Suddenly afraid, Chloe moved over towards the viewers.

Her kidnapper (could she still call him that?) followed. "Just ask it a question. Tell it what you want to see." Chloe ignored him. In a now insane existence, Chloe looked at the first screen. She was as ready as she was ever going to be, which was to say _not very_.

"Show me Clark Kent."


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

As she had first assumed it was a window, Chloe had stared at the Earth through the thick pane of glass (would it be glass on a space station?) with a longing for home… to find Clark and everyone else. Now, knowing that it was some type of trans-dimensional television screen of sorts, she was feeling even more lost than ever. The only good thing about it was that it was supposed to show her the one person she needed now more than ever: her beloved.

The previous picture of her home world had faded at her request, to see Clark, and now seemed to be flipping through a billion channels faster than Clark could even go through when he was bored, sitting in front of the TV. The images rushed by too fast for Chloe to get any real sense of what they were showing, maybe sorting through all of the different people on the planet, when suddenly it stopped.

Chloe suddenly felt very cold and flushed all at the same time. Her eyes were riveted on Clark, at least, she felt sure that the image on the screen was Clark. She just wasn't sure what to think.

On screen stood Clark, though he seemed several years older than when she'd seen him just a few hours previous. His hair was shorter, somehow, maybe just styled differently, with only a small curl falling into his face. There was strength to his look, an aura of confidence and power, which made her feel safer than ever before and more frightened than at any time she could ever recall.

The side of her mouth twitched towards a smile as she took in his outfit. He was dressed… _it was familiar… Oh, my God! He's dressed like our high school mascot! What is he thinking! This is what _Superman_ is all about?_

Clark was dressed in a very, very tight blue jumpsuit. There were red boots and a red cape (which she had to admit he looked surprisingly good in) and what she could only consider red underwear held over the blue suit by a bright yellow belt. But it was the emblem on his chest that caught in her throat. To many, it might be a stylized "S" – or even two yellow fish. But she recognized Kryptonian symbols when she saw them.

_The whole thing should have been ridiculous. Nobody should take this seriously. How is he not laughed at whenever he goes out in public? _But the more Chloe watched as he strode across the room he was in, the more she felt the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck rise. It was electric. No. He was electric. It was the power you could just feel that he possessed.

Absently, Chloe wiped at the tears that freely fell down her cheeks. Now she understood.

_Superman._

"Are you okay?" Ryder asked, breaking into Chloe's thoughts. Without embarrassment over her crying, she turned to look at the man who had opened up so much new knowledge to her, and in the same instant destroyed her world.

"Show me more."

Ryder nodded, but the screen had taken the request upon itself. Chloe turned to see images, now all of Clark… no, not Clark. Superman… whizzing across the screen. The viewer flowed through several scenes at a much reduced rate of speed, each frame waited long enough for her to visually take it in before moving off to the next.

Superman battling monsters. Superman saving children. Superman stopping bank robbers. Superman flying over the city. Superman doing this. Superman doing that. Superman doing everything. _Was there anything Superman didn't do?_

"Stop." The viewer froze. Superman was kissing Lois Lane. _Apparently, there were quite a few things that Superman did do. _

The scene was beautiful, like something out of a movie or a romance novel. Chloe's cousin, Lois, was in Superman's arms as he flew her over the city. Her hair was caught in the wind, billowing out to the side, his cape swirling in the same current. The two looked at one another, love deep in each of their eyes, the world only for the two of them.

That was how Clark looked at her. _Her! Not Lana. Never Lois! Not anyone else. It was Chloe and Clark. Not Lois and Clark._ Chloe had to force herself to stop making her hands into fists, her manicured nails cutting into her palms. The world seemed to all be tinted with red.

"I'm sorry about that…" Ryder began, but Chloe just ignored him.

_How did this happen? Where did this start? How did it begin?_ Chloe mentally backtracked as best she could, the rage clouding her judgment. _I was dead… not really dead, but hiding. Lois found Clark, together they found me. Lois living at the Kents…_ "That's it! The tramp seduced him while she was staying there. And all this time I blamed Lana…"

Matthew Ryder was watching Chloe, she could tell, but she continued to ignore him. He'd wanted her to see how things needed to be, then by God's sake, she was going to see.

"Viewer. Show me Clark Kent and Lois Lane first meeting."

The screen blurred as it twisted from the idyllic scene of Superman carrying Lois (glad that's gone), to a scene of Clark at the Daily Planet facing an enraged Lois.

"Wait. That's not right." Chloe was suddenly very confused. None of this was as it had happened. The picture showed an older Clark, again wearing glasses. And Lois… Lois looked older and more in control. _But why were they at the Daily Planet? Was she there?_

The scene pulled back, showing that Lois was a reporter… an award winning reporter… for the Daily Planet. Perry White was editor-in-chief, and he had just hired Clark because of a story about Superman. _Wait! A story about Superman? Clark was Superman._

"It gets confusing very quickly, doesn't it?" Ryder asked quietly.

Chloe turned away from the viewer, overwhelmed being too soft a word for how she was feeling. "None of its right…" He held up his hands to forestall Chloe from continuing. It took a lot of willpower, but Chloe closed her mouth and waited for Ryder to continue.

"In this particular reality… and one of the strongest, I must admit to you… Clark Kent did not meet Lois Lane until much later in life." He smiled apologetically. "This Earth is not yours, in many ways. The biggest way towards you, is that you did not grow up in Smallville."

"What? But where… ?" Again, Ryder motioned for her to hold off on questions.

He walked over to the chairs still situated in the center of the room and sat down. Chloe, not having too much choice if she wanted to hear more, left her spot in front of the viewer and moved to sit in the chair opposite his. Once she was situated, Ryder began again.

"On this Earth, your parents still divorced, but your mother took you with her rather than leaving you behind with your father." He held his hand up again when she started to open her mouth. "You never met Clark Kent in the second grade, never became best friends. Others filled the void you left.

"Here, Clark and Lana became best friends. They dated until the day Clark decided he needed to learn who he was supposed to become. Clark revealed his secret to her and then left. He didn't return to the world as Clark Kent until after he'd found a way to become Superman."

"But Lois…"

Ryder smiled sadly. "Certain aspects of reality require certain things to happen. With you in his life, Clark never became a reporter. You filled that void. The same as with Lois. In each reality, the Daily Planet is a part of their lives, but with you in the immediate picture, they became more specialized in what they do. Lois is a private investigator to you, but here she is an investigative reporter."

"So, where am I in this world?" Chloe asked, fearing the worst.

"We'll get to that later, I promise." Ryder's eyes darted about the room. Chloe knew something was wrong. She wasn't going to like this Earth at all. "Let's stick with Superman at the moment."

"Fine." She relented… for now. "Why is Clark pretending to not be Superman? Did he split in two again?"

"No. Clark Kent is a secret identity." Ryder explained.

Chloe looked over at the viewer, its screen blank, maybe like a screen saver. "How do people not realize Clark and Superman are the same person?"

"Misdirection, mostly." He answered. "And then, of course, there are the glasses."

"The glasses are his disguise?" Chloe felt vindicated somehow. "This must be a world full of stupid people."

Ryder laughed again, it actually seeming to reach his eyes this time. "Everyone always says that, but the truth is that nobody expected him to be anything other than Superman, so why would they look for him to be pretending to be someone other than who he is?"

Now that, she had to admit, made sense. More than a pair of fake glasses, anyway.

"So," she had to do this. "Without me, Clark and Lois end up together?"

"Yes." Ryder spoke slowly, apparently trying to be gentle on what he believed to be a sensitive subject. _Oh, how right he was._ "Over a very rocky start, partly because Lois was hung up on Superman, to the extent of ignoring Clark, they eventually found one another."

_She could do this. She had to do this._ "And they are happy?"

Ryder shrugged. "I guess. They have problems like so many other married couples. And add on the fact of him being Superman… well, it gets rough."

"How rough?"

He pointed to the viewer. "Show her the bad part of being Superman."

The screen blinked back to life. Even from a distance, the quality of the picture was clear enough to be easily understood. Some of the scenes were very similar to the ones she had looked at previously, but they were not near as (what word? Bright? Happy? Successful?) positive as the previous ones had been.

Superman, his brow scowled in anger, blood across his face, struggling against some type of robotic monstrosity. The picture changed to show various beings of immense power firing lasers and bombs and so many other things that she had no words to describe at Superman. The beatings he must endure. Picture after picture showed the fights and the blows. The blood spilt. And through it all, Ryder droned on in his narrative, names of places and foes, none meaning much more than a name that would forever haunt her.

And then Chloe's world shattered.

Superman was dead.

The tears welled in the corners of her eyes, her vision blurring, as she watched a creature uglier than anything she'd ever seen before fight with Superman… Clark… until the two finally fell together, both defeated, a city in ruins left in their wake.

Jimmy was taking pictures. But it was the pain in Lois' face, the agony of such a love lost. It was so close to Chloe's fears right now that she knew that she couldn't be angry at Lois for having this Clark, especially in a reality where Clark had never known her.

"So, Clark's dead here?"

"Actually, no." Ryder spoke. "His body was able to regenerate. He came back stronger and more powerful than ever."

She couldn't believe everything that she was seeing and hearing about this world. About Clark. _Could her Clark have been able to do all of this? Was she the reason why this reality was falling and causing all of the other realities to fall, as well?_

"What is it I need to see in this reality?" she asked, definitely ready to move on.

Ryder stood and offered her his hand. She took it, trying not to appear afraid to even touch him, as he led her back over to the screens. The viewer they had been watching had moved on past Superman's death to other enemies and battles.

"I need for you to see two people." He took a deep breath. "It is my hope that by understanding the nature of your enemies, Superman's enemies. That perhaps you can find what will be necessary to save Hypertime and the multiverse."

Chloe nodded. He was so serious.

"Show her Darkseid."

The screen was suddenly filled with a face of death. There was no other words or descriptions that could aptly convey the horror of what she was seeing. Ryder had said that to some, this Darkseid was a god. How bleak and torturous such a life must be.

His face seemed to be literally carved from rock, roughly chiseled out. Make no mistake… this wasn't like a beautiful sculpture in a museum, but more to the idea that the rock itself had tried to take some semblance of human form. And his eyes. The fires of Hell glowed from within. This was not a god, but a devil. The devil, perhaps, made real for this reality.

"This is the being that looks to rule everything… or nothing." Chloe understood a lot more now. If he'd shown her this to begin with, there might have been fewer thoughts from her that her captor was a complete idiot.

"You said two."

Ryder glanced away from her question to stare at the screen. "Yes, I did say two. I want you to brace yourself for this. I know it will come as a shock, but…"

Chloe rolled her eyes, effective cutting off Ryder as she turned to look at the viewer. "Show me Lex Luthor."

Ryder turned to stare at her.

"What?" she asked. "You think a Luthor being a bad guy is a surprise?"


	5. Chapter 5

_Let me take a moment to apologize for the time between updates. Hurricane Katrina, while far enough away to not cause any personal damage, still interrupted my life. My well wishes and prayers to any that are suffering._

_Now… let's get back to the story…_

OooooooOooooooO

"_I want Superman Dead."_

"_My fellow Americans... thank you. I am pleased to accept your nomination to become the next President of the United States of America."_

"_Did you really think I'd let an alien stop me?"_

Chloe took in the words rushing over her, like a giant sound byte for an upcoming episode of Hard Copy, as the screen filled with images of Alexander (Lex to most) Luthor… the epitome of humanity at its degraded, greedy and just plain dishonest worst… throughout his life on this Earth. Dressed impeccably in tailored suits of the finest

He'd been the entrepreneur, the husband, the mad scientist, the criminal mastermind, the villain and even the President of the United States. But what stood out the most was how in any version of his life… or lives, if you wanted to be technical about it, was that he was an enemy of Superman. THE enemy of Superman… her Clark.

Well, not really. Not here. In this reality, he was Lois' Clark.

She was actually kind of happy (in a sick, twisted sort of way) to be watching the view screen about the atrocities committed by Lex Luthor. It was so much easier than watching Lois and Clark and the adventures of Superman. _Ugh. It even sounded like a bad television program._ No. It was easier to focus on what was wrong in her reality that could cause Clark to not be able to stop Darkseid, allowing for that creepy guy to rule over the universe.

_Now she sounded like she belonged in a comic book or something. At least maybe a James bond film. She'd dreamed of being a Bond-girl as a kid._

"Are you even paying attention?" Ryder's voice pulled her out of her chain of thoughts. How had she gone from watching Lex to thinking about being in a 007 movie? "This is serious."

"Get off it!" She wasn't taking being verbally slapped by a guy in a pink leotard. "We've been doing this for a while now. What exactly do you expect me to see? It's not like I really know these versions of my friends and family!" She could feel herself getting more and more worked up… and it felt good. "How am I supposed to look at pictures of their entire lives and tell you what can be fixed?"

_Time to twist the knife._ "You've been doing this for how long again?"

Chloe almost felt guilty at her yelling at him as she watched Matthew Ryder's shoulders slump. She could tell that he knew she was right, but he'd made a decision in haste, grasping at whatever thin straw might be left for success.

"For whatever reason," his voice was so tired sounding, "every percentage that we run has you being able to succeed, but with no explanation as to why."

"That just doesn't make sense."

He smiled, though there was definitely no humor in his face. "Do you not think I don't know that? Hypertime exists in a constant state of paradox. Nothing that works should work. There's no continuity or support for the system."

Great. Another conversation headache. "Then how can you do this?"

"And do what else, Chloe?" He was becoming agitated. "Let the universe fall? Watch as an evil worse than your _good friend_ Lex Luthor ever dreamed of being just wipe humanity and the Earth out of existence?

"We need Superman."

Chloe gestured to the screen, flashes of Lex fighting some guy dressed like a bat or something, catching her eye momentarily. "And why not use the Superman from this reality?"

Ryder was already shaking his head before she got the question out. "Each reality has to follow a fundamental guide. If we allow for the Superman of this reality take the place of the Superman of your reality, then both become unstable."

"But my Clark's not Superman!" she could feel herself screaming, even though she knew she should hold her temper. "If he's not Superman, what's to prevent another one from doing what needs doing?"

"Because the introduction of this Superman, or any Superman for that matter, into a reality that hasn't one will fundamentally alter it forever."

"So what!" _Who cared about screaming?_ "Altered versus destroyed or enslaved, I'll take door number one every time. How can this not be simple to you?"

"Hypertime doesn't allow for simple answers, Chloe."

"What are you not telling me?" Chloe finally caught on. _There was a reason he was so easily dismissing her idea._

Again, he started shaking his head and slumping his shoulders. "We originally thought as you did. Bring in a Superman from another branch of the multiverse and let him fix the problem."

_She hated asking questions that she already knew the answer to._ "Didn't work, I take it?"

"Not at all. The Superman we brought over… he lasted only a few minutes in your reality."

"What happened to him?"

"Stop screen." Ryder called to the side. Chloe watched as the viewer suddenly froze, Superman and a whole group of other brightly costumed persons all fighting against Lex Luthor in front of the White House. She had to step away before she could study all of the different… superheroes is what he called them… different superheroes on the picture and walk after Ryder.

"What did happen?"

"As far as I can determine, and it's just me now. The rest of my team fell when Superman was destroyed trying to save your universe." _Chloe wondered at the venom in his words._ "As I can determine, your reality refused to accept anyone else's presence, and the team we sent in with Superman simply blipped out of existence."

"Blipped?"

"Sure. Blipped. Vanished. Disintegrated. Gone."

"I'm sorry." Chloe suddenly felt guilty, like she had somehow been a part of why a team of people from another universe and time had died trying to protect her. But she had to admit that the idea that beings from one reality, even if closely mirrored in another reality, the odds that you could step from one into the other without serious repercussions happ…

"Wait a second." She glared accusingly at her captor. "How the hell did you come and get me? Why are you still alive?"

"Now you're thinking." He condescendingly smiled at her like Lois did whenever she won at cards. "I wasn't trying to personally change anything in the outcome of your reality. I have taken you from a single moment in your existence and will return you less than one nanosecond after it realizes you are not there."

"Huh?"

"Simply put, the universe isn't going to know you're not there."

"You can fool the universe into thinking I'm still there when I'm not?" She asked incredulously.

"Effectively, you are there. As a Linear Man, I have died and been snatched from death too many times to count. It is all about knowing how time and continuity are supposed to work." He started pacing back and forth in front of the screens. "The laws of nature and physics are absolute, but that doesn't mean that occasionally, the laws can't be bypassed."

"But I'm safe here?" she asked with a bit of trepidation.

"Oh, absolutely." He stopped to look at her. "There only seems to be some type of bar against others from entering and affecting your reality. You, on the other hand, can go wherever and whenever you want in the other streams of the timeline and multiverse."

"But by taking to me and getting me to make some grand decision, aren't you personally affecting the outcome of my reality?"

He smiled again… possibly smiling more than before. "No. I am looking to have you, a natural part of that universe and reality, to affect the outcome. I'm really nothing more than a bystander."

Chloe leaned back on her heels and considered what he was saying. An idea was slowly formulating… one that would keep her on the trail of an answer, but also away from her solitary confinement with her kidnapper.

"What about me going down to this reality?" she ventured. That certainly got his attention from his musings about Hypertime.

"Interact with them?" Chloe had thought he was going to lose it, but instead, he seemed to consider the idea. She quietly watched as he resumed his pacing, his eyes darting from each of the screens back to her, and then back to the view screens. He was definitely considering it.

"We'd have to consider when to put you in, if we were. And of course, there'd be the various protocols for this being done." She strained to listen as Ryder kept mumbling to himself, sometimes his words as clear as a summer day in Smallville, while mostly he was as murky as swamp water. She wasn't sure, but he'd said something about before the beetle's death, or something similar. _What did a beetle have to do with anything?_

"Matthew?" Chloe hoped to get his attention.

She wanted to laugh at the look he gave her, almost as if he had completely forgotten she existed, even though it was her idea and presence that began his train of thought. Plus, it was the first time she had called him by his first name. "Yes?"

"You'll have to explain about me, first, if I'm going in." That had not been what he had expected from her at all.

She watched as his eyes darted through what she guessed were possible scenarios of her asking about her counterpart on this Earth. Finally, he walked back over to the monitor. "Code clearance voice activation." He smiled nervously as he turned to look at her. "Limit viewer to time period prior to OMAC incident."

"TEMPORAL LIMIT CONFIRMED." The view screen blanked as it answered. Chloe chided herself. _Who had known it could talk?_

Ryder caught her eye as he waved his hand theatrically through the air, motioning from her towards the monitor. "Ask away."

_What the hell was an omac? And what incident had it caused?_ Knowing that she would probably never get any of those answers out of Ruder, she chose to ignore his sarcastic gallantry and walked over to stand in front of the screen, once more blank. There were so many questions to ask… what was life like with her mother instead of her dad; what had her life been like?

Chloe took a deep breath and tried to keep herself steady. Seeing about Clark and Lois and Lex had been almost too much, in and of itself, but to see what she was like was most likely not going to be easy. She glanced once back at Ryder, but he was pointedly not watching her, his back turned to her. From the echoes in the room, she felt sure he was still mumbling his different thoughts about sending her down to this Earth. At least, he was finally letting her see about her own life here.

"Show me Chloe Sullivan now."

The screen flipped through several thousand images in the span of a second or two until it finally came to sit on a young woman eating at a nice restaurant. The angle of the shot was not to her liking, so Chloe asked the monitor to change it, and she suddenly was looking into her own face…

Again, sort of.

She watched as the woman seemed to ignore the world around her, engrossed in a book next to her plate of food on the table. Even at a downward angle, Chloe recognized much in the strange woman's manner to suggest kinship. She was reading, to begin with. Her blonde hair was long, near Lana's hair length in high school, but was pulled back and tightly braided. The clothes she wore were nice, very in-style, for some type of business woman, but Chloe kept coming back to the question of why she would be alone in a nice restaurant.

Chloe cocked her head to the side as she contemplated the image, but soon grew bored when the woman on the screen did nothing more than alternate between a bite of food, a sip of her drink or a flip of the page. She wasn't going to learn anything this way.

"Show me…" _How do you phrase the highlights of someone's life?_ "Show me a quick overview of Chloe Sullivan."

The screen quickly started flipping through Chloe's life… well, this Chloe. She watched as the woman on the screen lived the same life as she did up until her mother left her father, but she watched as she went with her mother. Quick flashes of various points in her life allowed for Chloe to somewhat put together what had happened to result in the nicely dressed woman eating alone.

"Pause screen." Chloe considered what she had seen so far. Apparently, her mother had done fairly well for herself and had remarried not too terribly long after leaving her dad. They had stayed in Metropolis, long enough for her to finish high school, having never gone anywhere near a school newspaper, and to be accepted to several colleges on science contract.

From there, she'd gone on to a college in Central City. She'd dated a few different guys; having even lost her virginity to the first one she met as a pledge to her sorority. They'd dated, but not too long. In fact, she never dated anyone long enough for any real chance of a relationship to happen. Instead, she continued on in science and had been working at some place called S.T.A.R. Labs along the West Coast until she was enticed away by LexCorp.

And that's where she'd left it. She was a pretty, but very aloof, scientist working for the company founded and created by Lex Luthor, the arch nemesis to Superman. _Where should she go from here?_

"Have there been any meeting between Superman/.Clark Kent and Chloe Sullivan?"

Chloe watched the screen as Superman broke through a wall at LexCorp. A chuck of concrete that exploded into the room was hurtling straight at the Choe on the viewer, when Superman suddenly blocked the chuck of the wall from hitting her, possibly killing her. She smiled as she watched the slight shake of his eyes in embarrassment from almost hurting her, as he then turned away.

Chloe never knew what he was turning to face against, as the screen switched to a view of Clark (with long hair, no less!), waving to a group full of women, as he apologized for interrupting the party. _It's Lois' bachelorette party. That's why Chloe was there, she'd been invited to the party celebrating Lois' and Clark's upcoming marriage._

The scene shifted again and Chloe watched as Clark was marrying her cousin. She kept telling herself that this wasn't her Earth and definitely not her Clark, but she couldn't help the itchiness her eyes felt as she watched the scene. Through a force of will she never knew she possessed, she watched everything there was to see. She even thrilled at seeing Clark smile at the Chloe on the screen as they left the church for their honeymoon.

The screen paused as they left. Apparently there was nothing more to see with both of them together. She couldn't help but feel sad for the friendship lost. Forgetting the love and everything else, just that a friendship that had survived since she'd kissed him in the second grade never happened on this Earth. It just seemed… sad.

"Did you see enough?" She had heard Ryder coming up behind her this time.

"So," she began. "I'm a bad guy here."

"No." he quickly replied. "You just work for one of the bad guys."

"And my relationship with Clark? Lois? Lana? Hell, even Pete Ross?" Well, she _had_ been ready, but now she could feel the tears falling down her cheeks. She'd expected to cry today, but not over the loss of everything she'd held dear, but rather a confirmation of it all.

His voice was quiet. "Here there is no relationship with any of them. You still are cousins with Lois Lane-Kent, but you don't have much of a relationship. Your being invited to the wedding party was a lame attempt of her mother to patch up the family a little bit."

"And Clark?"

He sighed at her question. "He knows who you are, but that's it. Truth be told, not even Lex Luthor knows you. He hired you because of a project you were working on at S.T.A.R. Labs and wanted an inside track on the new technology."

She'd been wrong. She would freely admit it. "I can't go down there… be a part of that world. That's not me."

Ryder grabbed her by her shoulders and roughly turned her to look into his face. "No one wants you to become _that_ Chloe Sullivan. I need for you to go down there and figure out why this version of the universe is strong enough to repel Darkseid. Once we know that, we can move on to the other problems and scenarios for us to deal with."

Fear's hand had a hold of her throat, as her skin went cold along her back. "And after that, I can go back to my wedding?" At his silence, she pressed on, refusing to listen to what she knew would actually happen. "Go to this world, see the sites and make the decision and then go home."

His eyes narrowed as he considered her words. "You have other worlds to see… to visit, now."

"But, what if we can just visit this one and fix everything? That could work, couldn't it?"

She hated asking questions that she already knew the answers to.


End file.
